Exactly how much are the animals that live in our homes caught up in our everyday family dynamics?
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Photo by Avi Steinhardt
An updated version of an episode from 2000.
The Youth In Asia
When a pet dies, to what degree can it be replaced by another? And to what degree can pets replace people in our lives? David Sedaris tells this story of cats and dogs and other animals. (16 minutes)
This story is also included in David’s book Me Talk Pretty One Day.
Polly Wants More Than A Cracker
Veronica Chater explains the conflict in her house between her love for her pet macaw—a kind of parrot—and her love for her husband and three kids. The macaw wreaks a sort of low-level chaos in the house, because it wants Veronica all to itself. (10 minutes)
Veronica is the author of the memoir Waiting for the Apocalypse.
Resurrection
Writer Brady Udall with another story about what animals can take the place of, in our lives and in our homes—this one involving an armadillo. (23 minutes)
This work of fiction originally appeared in the Autumn 1999 issue of Story magazine.
Related
Act Four: Graveyard Shift
Act One: Polly Wants More Than A Cracker
Act Two
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Harper High School - Part Two
Part two of our program on Harper High School in Chicago, where in the last year 29 current and recent students were shot.